THE    DOGE    SAT    ALONE    IN    A    GREAT    CARVEN    CHAIR 


•' 

v  THE    ISLAND 

~'J-         i 

OF    ENCHANTMENT 

BY 

JUSTUS  MILES  FORMAN 

i 

ILLUSTRATED      BY 

HOWARD  PYLE 

NEW      YORK      AND      LONDON 

HARPER      &     BROTHERS 

PUBLISHERS         •$•         MCMV 

Copyright,  1905,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  reserved. 
Published  September,  1905. 


Contents 


959645 


("SV  •     '    / 

" 


PAGB 

I.  YOUNG    ZUAN   GRADENIGO      ....       I 

II.  THE    WOMAN    OF    ABOMINATION         .       .    $9 


Illustrations 


41  THE  DOGE  SAT  ALONE  IN  A  GREAT 

CARVEN   CHAIR" Frontispiece 

HE     LAID    THE    MANTLE    OVER    THE 

GIRL'S   SHOULDERS Facing  p.     32 

"  HE   LAY  AWHILE,  CONSCIOUS  OF 

GREAT  COMFORT" 60 

SHE  HUNG  DROOPING  IN  THE  GREAT 

CHAIR  OF   STATE "  98 


William  R  Schleich, 


The 


Island   of    Enchantment 


The 
Island   of    Enchantment 


Young    Zuan    Gradenigo 

EVIL  tidings  have  their  own  trick 
of  spreading  abroad.  You  cannot 
bury  them.  The  news  which  had 
come  secretly  to  Venice  was  known 
from  the  Giudecca  to  Madonna  dell' 
Orto  in  two  hours.  Before  noon  it 
was  in  Murano. 

Young  Zuan  Gradenigo,  making  his 
way  on  foot  from  the  crowded  Mer- 
i 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

'  *:^ ';•',.. 

iqeria;  iptp,:the  Piazza,  di  San  Marco, 
ran  upon  his  friend,  the  young  Ger- 
man captain,  whom  men  called  II 
Lupo  —  his  name  was  Wolf  art  —  and 
learned,  what  almost  every  other  man 
in  the  city  already  knew,  how  Lewis 
of  Hungary,  taking  excuse  of  a  mer- 
chant ship  looted  in  Venetian  waters, 
was  on  his  way  to  a  second  invasion, 
and  had  given  over  the  Dalmatian 
towns  to  the  ban  of  Bosnia  to  rav- 
age. 

The  two  men  were  still  eagerly  dis- 
cussing the  matter  and  its  probable 
outcome,  half  an  hour  later,  standing 
beside  one  of  the  gayly  painted  booths 
which,  at  this  time  —  the  spring  of 
1355 — were  clustered  about  the  foot 
of  the  great  Campanile,  when  a  ser- 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

vant  in  the  livery  of  the  doge  touched 
young  Zuan's  arm  and,  in  a  low  tone, 
gave  him  a  message. 

Gradenigo  turned  back  to  the  Ger- 
man. 

"  My  uncle  wishes  to  see  me  at  once 
in  the  palace,"  he  said.  "If  you  are 
not  pressed,  go  to  my  house  and  wait 
for  me  there.  I  may  have  impor- 
tant news  for  you."  Then,  with  a 
parting  wave  of  the  hand,  he  went 
quickly  across  the  Piazzetta  and  un- 
der the  gateway  to  the  right  of  St. 
Mark's. 

At  the  head  of  the  great  stair  two 
men  were  awaiting  him,  and  they 
led  him  at  once  through  a  narrow 
passage  with  secret  sliding  -  doors  to 
an  inner  cabinet  of  the  private  apart- 
3 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

ments  of  the  newly  elected  doge,  his 
uncle,  Giovanni  Gradenigo. 

The  doge  sat  alone  in  a  great 
carven  chair  before  a  table  which  was 
littered  with  papers  and  with  maps 
and  with  writing-materials.  From  a 
high  window  at  one  side  colored  beams 
of  light  slanted  down  and  rested 
in  crimson  and  blue  splashes  upon 
the  dark  oak  of  the  table  and  what  lay 
there,  and  upon  the  rich  velvet  of  the 
doge's  robe,  and  upon  his  peculiar 
cap  of  office.  He  was  not  a  very  old 
man,  but  he  was  far  from  strong. 
Indeed,  even  at  this  time  he  was 
slowly  wasting  away  with  the  disease 
which  carried  him  off  a  year  later, 
but  as  he  sat  there,  bowed  before  the 
table,  he  looked  old  and  very  worn 
4 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

and  tired.  His  face  had  no  color  at 
all.  It  was  like  a  dead  man's  face — 
cold  and  damp. 

And  yet,  although  he  was  ill  and 
seemed  quite  unfit  for  labors  or  duties 
of  any  sort,  he  was  in  reality  an  un- 
usually keen  and  shrewd  man,  capable 
of  unremitting  toil.  There  burned 
somewhere  within  the  shrunken,  pallid 
body  an  astonishingly  fierce  flame  of 
life.  He  had  been  elected  to  office 
hard  upon  the  Faliero  catastrophe 
partly  because  his  name  was  one  of  the 
very  greatest  in  Venice — two  others  of 
his  house  had  worn  the  cap  and  ring 
within  the  century  past — but  chiefly 
because  his  sympathies  were  as  re- 
mote as  possible  from  the  liberal  views 
of  the  poor  old  man  who  had  preceded 
5 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

him.  He  was  patrician  before  all  else, 
and  fiercely  tenacious  of  patrician 
rights — fiercely  proud  of  his  name  and 
possessions. 

He  did  not  move  as  his  nephew  en- 
tered the  room,  only  his  pale  eyes  rose 
slowly  to  the  young  man's  face  and 
as  slowly  dropped  again  to  the  table 
before  him.  Young  Zuan  pulled  for- 
ward one  of  the  heavy,  uncomfortable 
chairs  of  carved  wood  and  sat  down  in 
it.  He  was  wondering  very  busily 
what  his  uncle  wanted  of  him,  but  he 
knew  the  old  man  too  well  to  ask  ques- 
tions. Besides  that,  it  would  not  have 
been  respectful. 

Presently  the  pale  eyes  rose  again. 

"You    have  —  heard?"    asked   the 
doge,  in  his  thin  voice. 
6 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Young  Zuan  nodded. 

"  It  is  all  over  Venice,"  he  said.  "  That 
Angevin  devil  Lewis  is  coming  west- 
ward again,  and,  to  begin  with,  has  set 
his  friend  the  ban  on  Zara  and  Spalato. 
He  chose  his  time  well,  God  knows!" 
He  paused  a  moment  as  if  in  expecta- 
tion of  comment,  but  old  Giovanni's 
face  was  a  death-mask,  immobile,  and 
he  went  on :  "  As  II  Lupo,  the  German 
captain,  said  to  me  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  ago,  '  Venice  is  a  very  sick  man — 
poison  within,  wounds  without/  We 
shall  lose  Dalmatia." 

Old  Giovanni  nodded  once  or  twice, 
and  for  a  moment  he  closed  his  pale 
eyes,  sitting  quite  motionless  in  his 
great  chair.  It  was  as  if  he  ceased  even 
to  breathe.  Then,  quite  suddenly,  the 
7 


4 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

eyes  snapped  open  and  a  swift  flame 
of  rage  seemed  to  leap  up  in  the  old 
man,  amazing  in  its  unexpectedness. 
A  momentary  patch  of  crimson  glowed 
upon  each  of  the  gray  cheeks. 

"That  dog  may  have  Dalmatia,"  he 
cried,  "  but,  by  God  and  by  my  ring  of 
office!  I'm  damned  if  he  shall  have 
Arbe!  I  won't  give  up  Arbe!  I  want 
to  die  there!" 

Now  Arbe  needs  a  very  brief  word  of 
comment.  It  was,  and  is,  one  of  the 
northern  Dalmatian  islands — a  tiny 
island,  claw-fashioned,  ten  miles  long, 
perhaps,  not  more  than  a  mile  wide  at 
its  thickest.  It  is  hemmed  about  by 
greater  isles — Veglia  to  the  north, 
Cherso  and  Lussin  Grande  to  the  west, 
Pago  to  the  south.  Eastward  the 
8 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

high,  bare,  rocky  rampart  of  the 
Croatian  hills  rises  sheer  from  the  sea, 
almost  throwing  its  shadow  over  the 
island  that  nestles  under  it.  The  north- 
ern expanse  of  Arbe  is  wooded,  but  at 
the  extremity  of  one  south-stretching 
claw  sits  a  city  in  miniature. 

It  was  at  this  time,  and  had  been  for 
more  than  a  century,  a  summer  resort 
for  several  of  the  great  Venetian  fami- 
lies, who  had  built  there  villas  and 
campanili  and  churches  as  beautiful 
as  anything  beside  the  Grand  Canal, 
though  no  more  beautiful  than  those  of 
the  true,  native,  Arbesan  families,  such 
as  the  De  Dominis  and  Nemira  and 
Zudeneghi.  As  a  witness  that  I  do  not 
lie,  you  may  see  the  ruins  of  them  even 
now — magnificent  ruins,  dwelt  in  by  a 
9 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

horde  of  fishermen.  And  among  these 
great  families,  by  far  the  foremost  had 
been  the  Gradenigo.  There  were  three 
Gradenigo  villas,  cloistered  and  court- 
yarded,  which  were  magnificent  enough 
to  be  called  palaces;  a  Gradenigo  had, 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  built 
the  highest  and  finest  of  the  four  cam- 
panili  —  it  still  stands ;  a  Gradenigo 
had  been  several  times  count  of  the 
island.  Hence,  as  you  see,  Arbe  was 
peculiarly  a  Gradenigo  pride.  It  was 
the  apple  of  their  eye.  Hence  also  you 
will  comprehend  old  Giovanni's  sud- 
den flare  of  rage.  His  withered  heart 
was  wrung  with  fear.  He  saw,  I  have 
no  doubt,  hideous  visions  of  the  ban's 
barbarians  slaying,  looting,  wielding 
torch  and  hammer  in  his  fairy-land. 

IO 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Young  Zuan  looked  up  with  new 
concern. 

"A-ah!"  he  said,  half  under  his 
breath.  "Arbe! — I  had  not  thought 
of  Arbe."  His  tone  took  on  a  shade  of 
doubt. 

"Is  it  likely,"  he  wondered,  aloud, 
"that  the  ban  will  go  out  of  his  way 
to  attack  the  island  ?  It's  of  no  value 
whatever,  strategically.  It  would  be 
mere  wanton  vandalism." 

"And  what,"  snarled  old  Giovanni, 
"  is  that  mongrel  Bosnian  but  a  vandal  ? 
'Likely,'  say  you?  It  is  more  than 
that.  The  dog  has  sworn  to  take  Arbe 
and  give  it  to  that  Magyar  strumpet  of 
his,  Yaga.  He  knows  nothing  would 
hurt  me  more.  He  went  about  Zara, 
a  week  ago,  boasting  openly  of  what 
ii 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

he  meant  to  do  —  so  the  word 
comes." 

Young  Zuan  flushed  red  and  cursed 
under  his  breath. 

"That  is  beyond  bearing!"  he  said. 
"  That  woman  in  Arbe  ? .  That  shame- 
less, thieving  wanton  who  stole  away 
Natalia  Volutich?" 

The  doge  nodded,  licking  his  blue 
lips.  "  The  same,  "he  said.  "The  ban's 
Yaga  would  appear  to  have  a  grudge 
against  the  house  of  Gradenigo." 

About  a  year  before  this  time,  for 
the  sake  of  cementing  a  closer  union 
between  the  two  republics,  a  marriage 
had  been  arranged  between  young 
Zuan  Gradenigo  and  the  daughter  of 
the  Ragusan  Senator  Volutich.  But 
before  Zuan  had  reached  Ragusa  to 

12 


if 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

make  his  visit  of  ceremony  and  see  his 
prospective  bride,  the  girl,  riding  with 
her  women  a  little  way  beyond  the 
land  gate  of  the  town,  had  been  stolen 
by  brigands.  Such  things  were  by  no 
means  extraordinary.  Nothing  had 
been  heard  of  her  since,  save  that,  a 
fortnight  after  her  capture,  a  letter, 
couched  in  most  insulting  terms,  had 
come  to  Ragusa  from  the  Princess 
Yaga,  that  infamous  favorite  of  the 
ban,  saying  that  the  girl  was  in  her 
household  and  somewhat  preferred  it 
to  her  former  home. 


"It's  beyond  bearing!"  said  young 
Zuan  again,  and  he  was  so  angry  that 
his  voice  shook.  Then,  after  the  two 
had  for  a  moment  stared  into  each 
other's  eyes,  he  threw  out  his  hands 

13 

m-}.-.  .  '--'•'  • 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

with  a  little  laugh  of  sheer  exaspera- 
tion. 

"But  what  can  we  do?"  he  cried. 
"  Madonna  Santissima,  what  can  we 
do?  With  this  war  upon  our  hands 
the  council  will  never  consent  to  send- 
ing aid  to  Arbe,  which  is,  after  all,  of 
importance  to  only  a  few  families." 

•  *Uk -fi^HU  uflLL 

"  They  must  consent !"  said  the  doge, 
fiercely.  "  I  will  not  lose  Arbe !  Look 
you !  Who  are  the  families  concerned  ? 
Loredan,  Morosini,  Dandolo,  Celsi,  Ve- 
nier,  Contarini,  Corner.  All  of  them 
members  of  the  Ten.  I  will  see  them, 
and,  among  us,  we  shall  be  able  to  ar- 
range it.  The  thing  must  remain  a 
private  matter.  We  who  love  Arbe 
must  go  to  Arbe's  aid  unofficially. 
Three  galleys  will  suffice.  They  must 
14 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

leave  to-night,  and  the  council  must 
not  know  of  it  until  after  they  have 
sailed." 

Young  Zuan  looked  up  with  a  cer- 
tain awe,  for  the  scheme,  when  one 
considered  the  state  of  internal  affairs 
in  Venice  at  that  time,  was  almost 
madness. 

"It  is  a  desperate  plan,"  he  said, 
gravely.  "You  must  feel  very  deeply 
to  risk  such  a  scheme,  after  the  Faliero 
affair." 

Old  Giovanni  Gradenigo  beat  his  yel- 
low hand  upon  the  table  before  him, 
and  once  again  the  two  spots  of  color 
came  out  upon  his  sunken  cheeks. 

"I  will  not  lose  Arbe!"  he  cried  for 
the  third  time.  "Leave  the  risk  and 
the  arrangements  to  me.  As  for  you, 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Zuan,  you  must  go  at  the  head  of  the 
expedition.  I  want  a  Gradenigo  to 
rescue  my  island,  and  you  are  the  only 
one  of  the  house  who  is  experienced  in 
warfare." 

"  Oh  yes,  of  course  I  should  go,"  said 
Zuan.  "I  have  the  best  right."  He 
rose  to  take  his  leave.  "  I  shall  have  a 
busy  day  of  it,"  he  said,  "but  I  can 
have  the  three  galleys  ready  before 
midnight,  and  secretly  at  that.  I  shall 
take  II  Lupo  with  me.  He  is  very 
faithful  and  a  better  man  than  I. 
When  shall  I  come  to  you  for  in- 
structions and  authority?  I  must 
have  authority  to  clear  the  galleys,  of 
course." 

"Come  to-night  when  I  send  for 
you,"  said  the  doge.  "Everything 
16 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

shall  be  ready  for  you."  He  had  sunk 
wearily  back  in  his  great  chair  once 
more,  and  all  signs  of  life  had  faded 
from  his  face.  It  seemed  to  his  nephew 
that  he  looked  more  than  ever  like  a 
dead  man.  He  raised  one  feeble  hand 
a  little  way  as  if  in  sign  of  dismissal, 
but  the  hand  dropped  back  upon  the 
carved  wood  of  the  chair-arm  with  a 
sort  of  dry  rattle,  and  Zuan  left  him  so, 
still,  silent,  deathly,  with  the  bars  of 
colored  light  from  the  high  window 
slanting  across  his  velvet  robes  in  bil- 
lets and  lozenges  of  vert  and  gules  and 
azure. 


The    three    galleys    which    slipped 
gently  out  of  the  canal  of  the  Giudecca 
that  night  bore  southward  before  a 
17 

^L^^^i^r^  '•'iy^^fc^^-X--'.-     /'     , 


-N  m 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 


favoring  maestrale.  Of  one  galley 
young  Zuan  Gradenigo  held  the  com- 
mand, of  another  the  German  called 
II  Lupo,  and  of  the  third  a  Venetian 
captain  whose  name  does  not  matter. 
By  noon  of  the  next  day  they  were  off 
Lussin  Grande,  and  hove  to,  well  out 
of  sight  of  land,  to  await  the  darkness. 
They  saw  during  the  day  nothing  to 
disturb  them.  No  ship  passed  save  a 
Venetian  fishing-boat  or  two,  high- 
prowed  and  with  colored  triangular 
sails  painted  with  some  device;  also, 
in  the  afternoon,  three  great  trabacoli 
south  bound  from  Trieste  or  Pola,  bluff- 
bowed  craft,  with  hawse-ports  painted 
to  represent  ferocious  eyes. 

Towards  evening  the  maestrale  died 
away,    as   it   so   often   does   in   these 
18 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

waters,  and  from  the  south  a  sirocco 
arose,  bringing  a  rack  of  clouds  over 
the  sky  and  a  heavy  dampness  to  the 
air.  Before  dark  it  was  freshening  fast 
and  a  fine  rain  was  beginning  to  drive. 
The  three  galleys  pitched  and  plunged 
heavily  in  the  mounting  sea.  Young 
Gradenigo  signalled  to  the  two  other 
ships,  and,  leading  the  way  himself,  ran 
for  the  southern  point  of  Lussin.  He 
knew  that,  once  within  the  shelter  of 
the  islands  and  scoglie,  he  would  be 
well  out  of  danger,  for  there  is  never  a 
sea  there,  even  though  a  storm  may 
be  raging  outside. 

By  the  time  he  reached  the  tranquil 

*S'  .    ±*fM  •  :l  \ 

shelter  between  Lussin  and  Pago  the 
night  had  fallen,  black  dark.     It  rain- 
ed in  spells,  but  once  in  a  while  the 
19 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

J  :Sf 
driving  rack   overhead   parted   for   a 

moment  and  a  flash  of  moonlight  came 
down.  Young  Zuan  ordered  the  galley 
brought  to,  and  waited  for  one  of  these 
momentary  floods  of  light.  The  light 
came,  touching  with  silver  the  great, 
tumbling  seas  outside  the  barrier  reef, 
but  the  seas  were  empty.  There  were 
no  galleys  making  for  the  southern 
point  of  Lussin .  Gradenigo  turned  with 
an  oath  of  surprise  to  the  old  sailing- 
master  who  stood  beside  him,  shelter- 
ing his  eyes  from  the  wind  with  one 
brown  hand. 

"  They  have  been  driven  northward, ' ' 
he  said.  "  They'll  have  to  run  between 
Cherso  and  the  main  -  land  and  beat 
south  again  by  Veglia."  The  sailing- 
master  shook  his  head  gloomily. 

20 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"It  is  a  bad  night,  lord,"  said  he. 
"That  sea  will  be  hell  in  another 
hour."  And  he  moved  off  forward  to 
give  orders  to  his  men. 

There  seemed  nothing  for  it  but  to 
go  on,  and,  in  the  sheltered  cove  at  the 
north  of  Arbe,  where  the  disembark- 
ment  was  to  take  pace,  await  the  other 
ships.  Young  Zuan  felt  no  great 
anxiety  over  them;  he  was  sure  that 
they  had  merely  been  driven  north- 
ward, and  would  have  to  round  Cherso, 
and  then  make  their  way  down  again 
through  the  sheltered  "  canal "  between 
that  island  and  Veglia.  His  only  fear 
was  that  they  might  not  reach  Arbe 
before  morning,  in  which  case  the  re- 
lief of  the  city — granting  always  that 
the  ban's  expedition  had  already 

21 


'  "-C' 
The    Island    of    Enchantment 

occupied  it — would  have  to  be  delayed 
until  another  night. 

He  put  about  again,  and,  running 
before  the  strong  sirocco  (the  wind,  of 
course,  reaches  these  sheltered  waters, 
somewhat  abated,  though  there  is  no 
sea) ,  made  out  the  lights  of  Arbe  with- 
in two  hours.  In  another  hour,  leav- 
ing the  galley  well  to  the  west  of  the 
island  and  hidden  in  the  gloom,  he  was 
in  a  skiff,  rowed  by  two  strong  sailor- 
men,  creeping  round  the  walls  of  the 
city. 

Now  it  has  been  said  that  the  city 
occupies  a  south  ward- jutting  claw  of 
rock.  The  villas  and  streets,  indeed, 
crowd  to  the  very  edge  of  the  narrow 
ridge.  On  the  western  side  the  sea- 
wall, a  hundred  feet  high,  rises  sheer 

22 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

from  the  water,  and  is  continued  up- 
ward by  the  walls  of  the  buildings. 
Eastward,  however,  round  the  point, 
the  land  slopes  lower,  and  here  is  a 
sheltered  cove  in  the  crook  of  the  rocky 
claw,  with  a  mole  and  landing-place 
of  hewn  stone.  Upon  the  landing- 
place  opens  a  public  square. 

Young  Zuan  in  his  skiff  crept  round 
the  point,  and,  always  under  the  shel- 
ter of  the  sea-wall,  into  the  still  har- 
bor where  was  the  landing-place.  Fifty 
yards  from  the  point  where  the  sea- 
wall dropped  to  the  water's  level  and 
the  open  square  began,  he  halted.  From 
the  wall  near  by  lion  heads  of  carved 
stone  projected,  and  in  each  beast's 
mouth  hung  a  great  bronze  ring  for 
mooring  ships.  One  of  the  two  sailor- 
23 


A 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

men  laid  hold  of  a  ring  and  held  the 
skiff  steady,  and  Zuan  rose  to  his  feet 
to  look. 

Far  over  his  head  the  wind — driv- 
ing a  thin  rain  before  it  once  more — 
shrieked  and  whistled  past  the  roofs  of 
Arbe,  and  flapped  the  gay  awnings 
which  hung  over  the  marble  balconies. 
Once,  above  the  wind's  noise,  a  wom- 
an's shriek  rose  and  held  and  then 
died  suddenly.  Beyond,  in  the  open 
square,  a  great  fire  blazed  on  the  flags, 
and  hurrying  men  in  strange  dress 
threw  armfuls  of  fuel  upon  it.  Others 
held  hands  and  danced  about  the  fire 
in  a  ring,  like  devils,  singing  a  weird 
and  wild  chant.  It  was  a  fine  chant 
and  stirring,  and  these  Huns  sang  it 
well,  but  to  young  Zuan  Gradenigo's 
24 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

ears  it  was  the  baying  of  unclean 
dogs. 

He  dropped  back  upon  the  thwart 
of  his  skiff  with  a  sobbing  curse.  The 
ban's  Magyar  strumpet  was  set  where 
the  ban  had  sworn  to  set  her. 

"  Row  to  the  galley!"  he  said,  and  as 
the  two  sailor-men  bent  to  their  work, 
standing  at  their  oars  gondolier  fashion, 
and  the  skiff  leaped  forward  through 
the  wet  gloom,  he  laid  his  face  in  his 
hands  and  it  twisted  and  worked  bit- 
terly. He  was  by  no  means  a  cow- 
ard, and  he  was  not  a  particularly 
imaginative  man,  but  the  picture  of 
that  leaping  fire  and  the  leaping,  chant- 
ing devils  about  it  persisted  before  his 
eyes,  and  he  looked  forward  to  the 
struggle  which  was  to  come,  and  an 
25 


X  I*':"*  .^ 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

: 

->—> 

odd  premonition  of  disaster  took  pos- 
session of  him  and  would  not  be  driven 
away. 

In  the  tiny  sheltered  cove  of  rendez- 
vous, two  miles  above  the  city,  they 
anchored  the  galley  and  disembarked. 
There  is  a  rocky  headland  beside  the 
cove,  high  at  its  outer  end,  and  here 
certain  trusty  officers  took  their  station, 
with  lanterns  muffled  in  their  cloaks,  to 
watch  for  the  approach  of  the  other 
two  ships.  Young  Zuan  went  within  a 
deserted  fisherman's  hut  which  stood 
where  wood  and  beach  met,  and  there 
held  council  with  his  sailing-master 
and  his  chief  lieutenant.  He  was  still 
strong  in  the  belief  that  II  Lupo's  ship 
and  the  other  were  safe  and  would 
arrive  in  a  few  hours — it  was  by  now 
26 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

somewhat  after  midnight — but  the  old 
sailing-master  again  shook  a  gloomy 
head.  He  had  served  Venice  for  forty 
years  on  land  and  sea,  and  he  was  a 
pessimist. 

There  arose  cries  and  shoutings  with- 
out, and  a  petty  officer  burst  into  the 
hut,  puffed  with  importance  and 
pride. 

"  Prisoners,  lord  !"  he  reported. 
"Three  spies  caught  skulking  and 
peeping  in  the  wood." 

"  Bring  them  in!"  said  young  Zuan. 
"And  keep  those  men  quiet  outside. 
Do  you  wish  the  whole  island  to  know 
we  are  here?" 

The  prisoners  were  thrust  into  the 
room — great,  squat,  hairy  fellows  in 
the  barbaric  dress  of  Huns,  surly  and 
27 


3 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

villanous.  They  would  not  speak. 
It  was  evident  that  they  understood 
neither  Italian  nor  Greek,  and  they 
affected  not  to  comprehend  the  sailing- 
master's  halting  efforts  at  their  own 
tongue.  They  only  stared  under  their 
shaggy  brows,  silent  and  stolid,  and 
tugged  at  the  hands  which  were  bound 
behind  them. 

"Are  these  men?"  cried  out  young 
Zuan,  in  fine  Venetian  scorn.  "Take 
the  cattle  away!  Bind  their  feet  and 
set  a  guard  over  them.  Hark!  What 
is  that?" 

That  was  a  woman's  scream  from 
without,  low  and  very  angry.  ''('•&** 

"  But  a  woman,  lord,"  explained  the 
officer  who  had  brought  in  the  prisoners 

-ua  young  wench  who  was  prowling 
28 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

with  these  fellows  and  was  taken  with 
them.  Asking  your  lordship's  pardon, 
I  thought  it  idle  to  bring  her  to  you — a 
common  wench." 

"  Take  these  men  away,"  said  young 
Gradenigo,  "  and  bring  in  the  woman. 
It  may  be  that  she  speaks  a  Christian 
tongue." 

She  crept  into  the  hut,  pressing 
against  the  side  of  the  doorway,  and 
stood  against  the  farther  wall — a  girl,  a 
mere  slip  of  a  girl,  with  her  long  brown 
hair  down  over  her  eyes.  And  there 
against  the  wall  she  stood,  shaking,  her 
hands  twisting  together  over  her  breast, 
and  her  eyes,  like  the  eyes  of  a  hunted, 
cornered  animal,  went  swiftly  from  one 
face  to  another  of  the  men  across  the 
room,  and  finally  settled  upon  the  face 
29 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

of  Zuan  Gradenigo,  and  did  not  stir  for 
a  long  time. 

She  stood  in  her  thin  white  shift, 
and  on  her  bared  arms  were  marks  as 
if  rough  hands  and  none  too  clean  had 
been  there. 

When  young  Zuan  spoke  his  voice 
was  gentle  and  kindly,  the  maid  was 
so  sore  beset,  so  full  of  fear,  so  alone. 

"Do  you — understand  Italian?"  he 
asked.  The  maid  did  not  answer  him, 
but  when  she  spoke  she  spoke  in  per- 
fectly fluent  Venetian  dialect — as  good 
Venetian  as  Gradenigo's  own.  And 
the  fear  seemed  to  go  from  her,  giving 
place  to  anger. 

"My  garments,  lord!"  she  said,  and 
laid  her  bruised  arms  across  her  bosom 
in  a  little,  pitiful  gesture  of  outraged 
30 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

i  -  /$$•<'' 

modesty.     "Your    men    have    taken 

them  from  me.  I  am  ashamed,  lord. 
They — laid  their  foul  hands  on  my 
arms."  Her  face  twisted  as  at  the 
memory  of  insult,  and  the  lieutenant 
who  stood  across  the  room  laughed 
aloud.  Young  Zuan  turned  upon  him 
fiercely. 

"  Hold  your  laughter  for  a  fitter  ex- 
cuse!" he  said.  "Are  we  Huns,  to 
insult  women?  Go  out  to  those  men 
and  find  the  maid's  garments.  Bring 
them  here."  The  man  went,  staring, 
and,  at  a  motion  of  Gradenigo's  head, 
the  sailing-master  followed  him,  leav- 
ing the  two  alone. 

"I  am  sorry,  child,"  said  Zuan  Gra- 
denigo.  "  We  did  not  come  here  to  ill- 
treat  women.  I  shall  see  that  my  men 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

are  punished  for  what  they  have  done. 
Meanwhile — ' '  He  took  up  the  mantle 
which  he  had  put  aside  over  a  near-by 
bench,  and,  crossing  the  room,  laid  it 
over  the  girl's  shoulders.  It  covered 
her  almost  to  the  feet.  And  when  he 
had  done  this  he  stood,  for  what  he 
imagined  to  be  a  moment,  looking 
down  into  the  eyes  that  held  his  so 
steadily  —  brave  eyes,  unafraid,  un- 
clouded, unwavering.  One  could  not 
be  harsh  or  cruel  in  the  gaze  of  such — 
even  though  they  looked  from  the  face 
of  an  enemy.  An  enemy?  Nonsense! 
A  girl  taken  by  chance  as  she  wandered 
through  the  wood — as  she  peeped,  full 
of  childish  curiosity,  at  the  disem- 
barkment  of  a  ship's  load  of  soldiers. 
Brave  eyes,  unafraid.  That  was  why 
32 


ifll 


HE    LAID    THE    MANTLE    OVER    THE    GIRL'S    SHOULDERS 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

they  held  him  so,  because  they  front- 
ed him  without  fear  —  even  with 
trust. 

Ay,  doubtless  that  was  why  they 
held  him  so,  and  yet—  He  stirred 
restlessly.  Such  great  eyes!  With 
such  illimitable  depths!  How  came  a 
wandering  child  by  such  eyes?  They 
moved  him  oddly.  The  child  would 
seem  to  be  an  uncommon  child.  Those 
steady,  burning  eyes  of  hers  had  some 
uncommon  power,  worked  some  strange 
spell,  some  sorcery,  not  evil,  but  un- 
familiarly  sweet,  unknown  to  his  ex- 
perience. 

He  gave  a  little,  confused  laugh  and 
raised  an  uncertain  hand  towards  his 
head,  but  the  girl  had,  at  the  same  mo- 
ment, put  out  one  of  her  own  hands 
33 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


to  fasten  the  clasp  of  Zuan's  mantle  at 
her  throat,  and  his  ringers  touched  her 
arm. 

At  that,  as  if  it  brought  back  her  in- 
juries to  mind,  she  dropped  her  eyes, 
and  the  man  was  loosed  incontinently 
from  his  chains. 

"Lord!"  she  cried  again,  flushing 
red  in  the  light  of  the  lanterns,  "  they 
put  their  foul  hands  upon  me!  They 
put  their  hands  upon  me!"  The  very 
present  peril  in  which  she  might  well 
have  believed  herself  to  stand  seemed 
not  to  occur  to  her.  It  seemed  that 
only  those  rough,  befouling  hands  were 
in  her  mind.  Her  face  gave  once  more 
its  little,  shivering  twist  of  anger  and 
repulsion. 

"They  shall  be  punished,  child!" 
34 


— ;; 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


said  Zuan  Gradenigo,  between  tight 
lips.  "  Oh,  they  shall  suffer  for  it,  you 
may  be  sure.  And  now"  —  he  took  a 
turn  away  from  her,  for  her  great  eyes 
were  upon  him  again,  level  and  un- 
afraid —  "now  will  you  tell  me  who 
you  are  and  how  you  came  to  be  found 
with  those  barbarians  to-night  ?  Sure- 
ly you  can  have  no  traffic  with  such. 
Surely  you  are  a  lady.  I  have  seen 
that."  And  indeed  he  had  seen,  while 
the  girl  stood  in  her  thin  white  shift, 
how  beautifully  she  was  made  —  deep- 
bosomed,  slim-waisted,  with  tapering 
wrists  and  ankles,  and  round  white 
throat.  No  common  wench  was  there. 
There  was  good  blood  under  that  white 
skin  of  hers. 

"  Surely  you  are  a  lady,"  said  young 
35 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Zuan,  but  the  girl  bent  her  head  from 
him. 

"Nay,  lord,"  she  said,  very  low,  "I 
am  only — a  serving-maid  to  the  Prin- 
cess Yaga." 

The  red  flamed  into  Zuan's  cheeks. 

"That  woman!"  he  cried.  "You 
serve  that  vile  fiend  in  human  flesh, 
that  royal  strumpet,  that  wanton  at 
whose  name  men  spit?  You?"  The 
girl  stared  at  him  under  her  brows. 

"Oh!"  cried  Zuan  Gradenigo. 
"Where  is  God  that  hell  could  devise 
such  a  wrong?  What  was  God  doing 
that  you  should  stray  into  such  clutches 
and  He  not  know  ?  That — that  mon- 
ster of  vice  and  uncleanness!"  He 
pointed  a  shaking  hand  towards  the 
south. 

36 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

''There  she  sits,"  said  he,  "polluting 
the  castle  where  Jacopo  Corner  has  sat 
for  so  many  years,  where  my  grand- 
father sat  before  him,  and  his  father 
before  him.  There  she  sits  gloating; 
but,  by  God  and  St.  Mark's  lion!  be- 
fore this  week  is  over  I  shall  tear  her 
head  from  her  body  and  throw  it  to 
the  dogs.  Nay!  better  than  that!  I 
shall  send  it,  in  the  name  of  Venice,  to 
the  ban  who  sent  her  here  to  shame 
us." 

"Lord!"  said  the  maid,  very  low — 
"  lord !  Oh,  you  do  not  know !  You — 
speak  wildly.  You  do  not  know  what 
you  say." 

"I  know,"  said  Zuan  Gradenigo, 
"  that  all  I  say  is  true.  That  woman's 
name  is  infamous  throughout  Europe. 
37 


J 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


It  is  a  name  of  scorn.  It  means  all  that 
is  vile — as  you  must  know.  Will  Arbe 
ever  be  clean  from  her  —  even  when 
we  have  washed  its  stones  with  her 
blood?  But  you!"  he  cried,  in  a  new 
voice.  "Oh,  child,  that  you  should 
have  to  serve  her — be  near  to  her!  I 
cannot  think  of  it  with  calmness." 

The  maid  turned  a  little  away  from 
him  and  moved  over  to  the  wooden 
bench  where  Zuan's  mantle  had  lain. 
And  she  seated  herself  at  one  end  of 
the  bench,  looking  across  the  room  at 
him  very  soberly. 

"And  why  not  I,  lord,"  she  asked, 
"as  well  as  another?  What  do  you 
know  of  me?  I  am — a  serving-maid, 
and  such  must  serve  whomever  they 
may."  He  came  nearer  and  stared 
38 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

into  her  face,  and  his  own  was  oddly 

K.-JKjf:  '  *  •  • 

troubled,  frowning. 

"  I  cannot  think  of  you — so,"  he  said. 

\ 
"  A  serving-maid  ?     There's  something 

strange  here.  Oh,  child,  you  have 
something  about  you — I  cannot  say 
what  it  is,  for  I  have  no  words.  I  fight, 

I  am  not  a  poet,  but  were  I  such,  I 
think — your  eyes — their  trick  of  look- 
ing— their — I  cannot  say  what  I  mean. 
A  serving-maid?     Oh,  child,  you  are 
fitter  for  velvets  and  jewels!     I  do  not 
understand .     Something  breathes  from 
you,"  he  said,  with  that  trouble  upon 
his  frowning  face,  an  odd  trouble  in  his 
eyes — bewildered,  uncomprehending— 
like  a  child's  eyes  before  some  mystery. 

II  Something  breathes  from  you.     I  do 
not  know  what  it  is." 

39 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

The  maid  looked  at  him  in  the  yellow, 
flickering  lantern-light,  and  she  made 
as  though  she  would  speak,  but  in  the 
end  shook  her  head  and  turned  it  a 
little  aside,  and  sat  once  more  silent. 
And  for  a  time  the  man  also  was  silent, 
watching  her  averted  face  and  think- 
ing how  amazingly  beautiful  it  was; 
not  white  with  the  pallor  which  the 
Venetian  women  so  prized,  but  sumpt- 
uously rich  of  color,  sun -kissed,  free, 

~"   "'^i'^''\ 
unashamed   of  the  wholesome   blood 

which  flowed  under  its  golden  skin  and 
stained  it  with  red  on  either  cheek.  He 
found  himself  possessed  of  a  mad 
desire  to  touch  that  cheek  which  was 
nearest  him  with  his  finger,  and  the 
sheer  folly,  the  childishness  of  the 
thought  would  in  any  other  mood  have 
40 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

shaken  a  laugh  of  scorn  from  him.  He 
was  not  a  woman's  man,  as  he  had  said, 
but  a  fighter. 

One  of  the  maid's  hands  stirred  in 
her  lap  and  dropped  beside  her  on  the 
wooden  bench.  The  lantern-light  fell 
upon  it — long,  slender,  tapering. 

"Your  hand,  child!"  said  young 
Zuan.  "It  is  not  the  hand  of  a  serv- 
ing-maid. It  has  never  done  rough 
tasks." 

"My  princess  is  kind  to  me,  lord," 
she  said.  "  My  tasks  are  easy." 

He  put  out  an  uncertain  hand  and 
touched  the  hand  that  lay  in  the 
lantern-light.  The  maid  drew  a  little, 
quick,  gasping  breath,  and  her  eyes 
turned  to  him,  great  and  dark.  Then, 
like  two  silly,  half  -  grown  children 
41 


M       V^. 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

caught  holding  hands,  they  both  flush- 
ed red  and  their  eyes  turned  aside  once 
more. 

Zuan  raised  a  hand  to  his  temples, 
where  the  blood  throbbed. 

"I  —  do  not  know  what  has  come 
over  me,"  he  said,  and  turned  a  few 
steps  away  across  the  room.  In  a 
moment  he  was  back  again,  on  one 
knee  before  her. 

"  You  lay  a  spell  upon  me !"  he  cried, 
whispering  into  her  bent  face.  "  I  am 
unmanned.  Strange  things  stir  my 
heart,  child — mount  to  my  head  like 
wine.  You  lay  a  spell  upon  me." 

"No,  lord,"  she  said,  very  low.  "I 
am  but  a  maid.  I  cannot  work  spells 
or  sorcery.  It  is  only  that  I  am  alone 
and  beset  and  miserable.  It  is  pity 
42 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

that  you  feel,  lord.  Ah,  you  are  kind 
and  merciful.  Lord,  I — wish  that  I 
might  do  you  a  service  for  the  service 
you  have  done  me." 

"Pity?"  said  young  Zuan. 

"Pity,  lord,"  she  said  again,  and  to 
his  awkward,  unskilful  tongue  and  to 
his  unaccustomed  hands  no  occupation 
seemed  to  come,  so  that  he  knelt  silent 
and  troubled  before  her  in  the  lantern- 
light. 

If  it  seem  that  enchantment  came 
overswiftly  upon  him,  overprecipi- 
tately,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
he  was  a  soldier,  wholly  unused  to  a 
woman's  company,  and  that  this  girl, 
young,  beautiful,  and  in  sore  straits, 
was  brought  before  him  in  the  manner 
most  certain  to  waken  his  chivalry — 

4  43 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


ay,  to  stir  his  ready  heart.  The  maid 
spoke  shrewdly.  It  was  pity  he  felt. 
But  other  emotions  wait  hard  upon 
pity's  threshold.  Further,  in  young 
Zuan's  day,  love  came  swiftly  or  not  at 
all.  It  was  not  the  day  of  courtship. 
Love  was  born  of  a  look — a  smile — 
a  hand -touch.  And  such  love  has 
wrecked  empires.  It  is  a  sober  truth 
that  no  great  passion  was  ever  of  slow 
maturing. 

There  came  from  without  the  door 
eager  voices  and  quick  steps,  and  the 
lieutenant  whom  Zuan  had  sent  to 
fetch  the  maid's  outer  garments — kro- 
zet,  saruk,  and  girdle — burst  into  the 
room.  His  eyes  were  round,  start- 
ing out  of  his  head,  and  his  face  was 
flushed  with  excitement. 
44 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


"  She's  still  here,  lord  ?"  he  cried  out, 
almost  before  he  had  entered.  "The 
woman  is  here?  You  have  not  let 
her  go?"  His  gaze  searched  the  hut 
swiftly. 

"She  is  here,"  said  Zuan  Gradenigo, 
"but  you  will  speak  more  respect- 
fully. Give  me  the  garments!"  The 
man's  excitement  was  too  great  to 
heed  reproofs.  He  thrust  the  things 
he  held  into  his  master's  arms. 

" See!"  he  cried.  " See  the  girdle- 
the  necklace  —  the  charm  she  wore 
about  her  neck!  See  whom  we  have 
taken!" 

Young  Zuan  looked  at  the  jewels, 
and  they  slipped  from  his  fingers  and 
fell,  flashing  in  the  light,  and  lay  about 
his  feet.  He  turned  very  slowly  tow- 
45 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

ards  the  girl,  who  stood  against  the 
farther  side  of  the  wall,  and  his  eyes 
were  once  more  like  a  child's  eyes- 
bewildered,  hurt,  uncomprehending. 
He  stretched  out  a  hand  towards  her, 
and  the  hand  shook  and  wavered. 

"  It  is  the  princess  herself!"  cried  the 
lieutenant.  "It  is  Yaga!"  and  fell 
into  a  chattering,  hysterical  laugh. 

"It  is  not — true,"  whispered  Zuan 
Gradenigo,  across  the  little  room.  "  Say 
it  is  not  true!"  His  voice  rose  to  a 
sharp,  agonized  appeal,  but  there  was 
no  conviction  in  his  tone.  He  knew. 

At  the  name  the  girl  had  cried  out 
suddenly,  and  to  smother  the  cry  she 
caught  her  two  hands  up  to  her  mouth. 
Even  then  her  eyes  went  from  one  man 
to  the  other,  swift  and  keen. 
46 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"Say  it  is  not  true!"  pleaded  Zuan 
Gradenigo,  but  the  lieutenant  babbled 
on,  stammering  in  his  excitement. 

"See,  Messer  Zuan!  We  have  her! 
We  have  her  fast !  Why  not  set  sail  at 
once  with  her  on  board — at  once,  before 
they  in  the  city  know  she  is  taken? 
Why  not  ?  See !  they  are  helpless  with- 
out her.  We  can  force  them  to  give  up 
Arbe  for  her.  She  is  worth  fifty  Arbes 
to  them  —  all  of  Dalmatia,  perhaps. 
Why  not  do  that?  Messer  Lupo's 
galley  has  not  come,  nor  the  other.  We 
can  do  nothing  alone.  Take  her  on 
board,  lord,  before  it  is  too  late,  and  set 
sail.  Leave  Arbe  to  itself  for  a  little. 
The  Huns  will  give  it  up  to  us.  Come, 
come!" 

It  is  doubtful  if  young  Zuan  even 
47 

*££* 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

heard.  His  eyes,  stricken  and  hope- 
less, were  upon  the  girl  across  the  room, 
and  he  whispered  over  and  over  again : 

"Say  it  is  not  true!  Say  it  is  not 
true!"  But  the  woman's  eyes  were 
upon  the  floor,  and  her  hands  dropped 
to  her  breast,  and  then  to  her  side  with 
a  little  forlorn  gesture,  and  she  bent  her 
head. 

"  It  is  true,  lord,"  she  said.  "  I  am 
the  princess  Yaga." 

The  lieutenant  gave  a  great  shout 
and  dashed  out  to  his  fellows.  Young 
Zuan  dropped  down  upon  the  near-by 
bench,  covering  his  face. 

Then  the  woman  came  to  him,  cross- 
ing the  room  swiftly,  and  dropped  upon 
her  knees  on  the  floor  beside  him. 

"Lord!"  she  said,  touching  his  arm 
48 


W1"  *  to 

filt 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

with  her  two  hands — "lord,  it  would 
have  been  of  no  avail  to  deny  it.  You 
would  have  found  me  out  in  time.  I 
am  that — dreadful  woman,  lord;  per- 
haps not  so  dreadful  as  you  have 
thought ;  perhaps  men  have  lied  about 
me  —  made  things  worse  than  they 
truly  are.  Still— lord— "  She  crept 
closer  to  him  on  her  knees,  and  her 
hands  pressed  eagerly  at  his  arm. 
"Lord,  it  was  wise,  very  wise,  what 
your  officer  begged  you  to  do.  You 
have  me  fast — the  ban's  Yaga.  Will 
you  not  set  sail  with  me  and  leave 
Arbe  ?  Will  you  not  hold  me  hostage 
for  your  island  ?  The  ban  will  give  it 
up  to  you  in  exchange  for  me.  Lord, 
will  you  not  do  this?"  She  pleaded 
with  him  in  an  odd  tone  of  eager 
49 

•-•W^  sir 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

anxiety  which  might  have  aroused  his 
suspicions  had  the  man  been  less  over- 
whelmed in  his  misery.  I  do  not  think 
he  heard  more  than  the  pleading  voice. 
I  do  not  think  he  followed  her  words 
at  all. 

"  Lord !"  she  cried  again,  shaking  his 
arm  with  her  two  hands,  "  will  you  not 
do  this  ?  It  will  be  best  for  you.  Oh, 
far  best !  Listen,  lord !  You  have  been 
kind  to  me,  gentle  and  pitiful.  You 
saved  me  from — from  great  shame  at 
the  hands  of  those  men.  You  saved 
me  when  you  knew  that  I  must  be  an 
enemy — even  though  you  did  not  know 
how  great  an  enemy — and  now  I  am 
trying  to  save  you.  You  are  in  great 
danger,  lord,  you  and  your  men.  Will 
you  not  listen  to  me?" 
50 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Young  Zuan  raised  a  white  face,  and 
his  eyes  looked  bitterly  into  the  wom- 
an's eyes  that  burned  so  near. 

"Danger?"  he  said,  dully,  under  his 
breath.  It  seemed  as  if  he  did  not 
care .  ' '  What  danger  ? ' ' 

And  then,  as  if  his  gaze  held  for  her 
some  of  the  strange  sorcery  which  hers 
had  laid  upon  him,  the  woman  faltered 
in  her  swift  speech,  and  she  gave  a 
little  sob. 

"Oh!"  she  cried.  "Why  did  I  not 
know  ?  Why  did  I  not  know  ?" 

"What  danger?"  repeated  Zuan 
Gradenigo,  as  if  the  words  meant 
nothing  to  him. 

"  They  know  that  you  are  here,  lord/' 
she  said.  "  We  knew,  in  the  city,  that 
you  were  coming.  The  fishing-boat 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

which  passed  you  this  morning  at  sea 
brought  us  news  of  three  galleys  from 
Venice.  Now  two  of  your  galleys  have 
been  blown  away  by  the  sirocco.  You 
are  but  a  few  men,  a  handful,  and  you 
will  be  overwhelmed.  Oh,  lord,  we 
whom  your  men  took  to-night  were 
spying  upon  you,  but  there  were  three 
more  who  escaped — three  more  men. 
They  will  have  reached  the  city  before 
this  time,  and  you  may  be  attacked  at 
any  moment.  Lord,  why  do  you  sit 
there  silent?  Why  will  you  not  take 
me  on  board  your  ship  and  sail 
away?" 

It  came  dully  to  Gradenigo's  mind, 
through  the  stress  and  whirl  which  ob- 
scured it,  that  the  maid  showed  a 
strange  eagerness,  out  of  reason. 
52 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


"Why  do  you  tell  me  this?"  he  ask- 
ed, suddenly.  "  Why  not  let  your  bar- 
barians capture  us — put  us  to  death? 
Why  do  you  wish  to  defeat  your  own 
cause?  There's  trickery  here."  He 
rose  to  his  feet,  frowning,  but  the 
woman  was  before  him. 

1  'If  you  —  cannot  see — lord,"  she 
said,  and  a  bit  of  bright  color  came  into 

1  B?>. 

her  cheeks,  "then  I  cannot  tell  you." 
Suddenly  she  put  out  her  two  hands 
upon  his  breast  and  fell  to  sobbing. 

"I  will  not  have  you  killed!"  she 
cried.  "  Oh,  lord,  I  will  not  have  you 
taken  or  slain!  For  your  men  I  care 
nothing.  They  may  die  where  they 
stand  and  it  will  be  nothing  to  me, 
but  you — lord,  I  cannot  bear  to  have 
you  taken!"  There  was  no  trickery 
53 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

in  that.     It  came  from  the  woman 's 
soul,  shaking  her  sorely. 

Zuan  looked  at  her,  this  slim,  pale 
girl  shaken  with  her  sobbing  —  this 
monster  of  vice  and  sin,  at  whose  name 
men  spat  with  derision — and  again  he 
felt  the  strange,  paralyzing  weakness 
creep  over  him.  He  could  not  hate 
her.  He  turned  his  eyes  away  and 
shook  himself  into  attention. 

"Come!"  he  said,  "we  will  go.  You 
cannot  be  lying  to  me.  We  will  go." 

But  before  he  could  take  a  step  there 
arose  in  the  night  without  a  babel  of 
cries  and  screams  and  the  clashing  of 
steel.  Above  it  all  the  same  strange, 
barbaric  chant  which  those  devils  leap- 
ing about  the  fire  in  the  landing-place 
of  the  city  had  sung  together. 
54 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"  Too  late !"  cried  the  girl.  "  Oh,  too 
late!  They  are  here  already!" 

Zuan  Gradenigo  sprang  silently  for 
his  sword,  which  he  had  laid  aside  in  a 
far  corner  of  the  room,  but  as  he  did  so 
the  woman  threw  herself  upon  the  half- 
open  door  of  the  hut  and  crashed  it  to, 
swinging  the  great  bar  into  place. 

''You  shall  not  go!"  she  said,  in  a 
gasping  whisper.  "You  shall  not  go 
out  there  to  be  slain!" 

"  Out  of  my  way !"  cried  Zuan,  sword 
in  hand.  "Out  of  my  way,  or  by 
Heaven  I'll  run  you  through!  Would 
you  have  me  skulk  here  while  my  men 
are  fighting?  Get  out  of  my  way!" 
He  ran  at  her  and  caught  her  by  the 
arm,  swinging  her  aside  from  the  door, 
but  the  woman  was  back  again,  on 
55 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

hands  and  knees,  before  he  could  re- 
cover his  balance.  She  caught  him 
about  the  knees  with  her  arms,  and 
she  was  as  strong  as  a  young  animal 
and  as  lithe.  He  could  not  move. 

He  raised  the  Venetian  dagger  which 
he  held  in  his  left  hand.  His  eyes  were 
on  fire. 

"Once  more,"  said  he,  "will  you 
stand  out  of  my  way  and  let  me  go?" 
Outside,  in  the  night,  the  cries  and 
clash  of  arms  clamored  on,  and  that 
barbaric  chant,  broken  sometimes, 
sometimes  swelling  loud  and  trium- 
phant, rang  over  all. 
jp-i^You  shall  not  go  through  this 
door!"  gasped  the  woman,  clinging 
fast  to  young  Zuan's  knees.  "They 
are  four  to  one  out  there.  They  would 
56 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


V**r£ 


kill  you  the  moment  you  stepped  be- 
yond the  door." 

Strategy  came  to  her,  and  she  shot 
out  a  bare  arm  towards  the  single 
window. 

"  Go  by  the  window!"  she  cried.  "  It 
opens  upon  a  thicket.  They  will  not 
see  you  there. "  She  loosed  him  and  he 
sprang  for  the  window,  swinging  away 
the  bar  and  pushing  open  the  heavy 
wooden  shutters. 

The  woman  was  upon  his  heels  as  he 
leaped  into  the  night,  but  he  did  not 
know  or  care.  Through  the  tangle  of 
shrubbery  and  vine  in  which  he  found 
himself  he  could  see  the  battle  raging 
in  the  clear  space  of  the  beach  beyond, 
and  towards  it  he  fought  his  way.  A 
heavy  creeper  laid  hold  upon  his  ankles, 
57 


A 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

and,  cursing  savagely,  he  slashed  at  it 
with  his  sword.  A  little  rise  of  ground 
was  before  him.  He  mounted  it  in  a 
single  leap,  and  from  its  crest  leaped 
again. 

Then  he  fell  a  long  way,  crashing 
first  through  the  mask  of  thicket 
which  covered  a  narrow  ravine,  striking 
thence  upon  the  earth  of  the  farther 
side  and  rolling  down  that.  Once  or 
twice  he  threw  out  his  hands  to  catch 
himself,  but  as  he  slipped  and  fell 
again  his  head  struck  upon  something 
hard  —  a  stone,  probably  —  and  that 
was  the  last  he  knew. 


The  Woman    of    Abomination 

WHEN  young  Zuan  Gradenigo  came 
once  more  to  his  senses  after  the  fall  in 
the  dark,  it  was  like  a  peaceful  awaken- 
ing from  sweet  sleep.  Indeed,  literally 
it  was  just  that,  for  from  the  un- 
consciousness following  upon  the  in- 
jury to  his  head  he  had  drifted  easily 
into  slumber,  so  that  when  he  waked 
he  had,  by  way  of  souvenir  of  his  mis- 
hap, scarcely  even  a  headache. 

That  his  eyes  opened  upon  blue  sky 
instead  of  upon  painted  or  carved  ceil- 
ing roused  in  him  no  astonishment.  In 

5  59 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

service  against  the  Turks  and  against 
the  Genoese  he  had  often  slept  in  the 
open,  waking  when  the  morning  light 
became  strong  enough  to  force  its  way 
through  his  eyelids.  He  lay  awhile, 
conscious  of  great  comfort  and  bodily 
well-being,  coming  slowly  and  lazily 
into  full  possession  of  his  faculties.  The 
air  was  fresh  and  warm,  with  a  scent 
of  thyme  in  it,  and  from  somewhere 
in  the  near  distance  sea-birds  mewed 
plaintively,  after  their  kind.  He  drop- 
ped his  eyes  from  the  pale-blue  sky  and 
saw  that  though  he  lay  upon  turf — a 
hill  it  would  seem,  or  the  crest  of  a  cliff 
— there  was  a  stretch  of  tranquil  sea 
before  him,  a  narrow  stretch,  and  be- 
yond this  a  mountain  range  looming 
sheer  and  barren  from  the  water's  edge. 
60 


HE    LAY    AWHILE    CONSCIOUS    OF    GREAT    COMFORT" 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

The  sun  must  be  rising  behind  it,  he 
said  to  himself,  for  the  tips  of  the 
serrated  peaks  glowed  golden,  mo- 
mentarily brighter,  so  that  it  hurt  his 
eyes  to  watch  them.  He  wondered 
what  mountains  these  could  be,  and 
then,  all  in  a  flash,  it  came  upon  him 
where  he  was — that  this  was  Arbe,  and 
that  ridge  the  Velebic  mountains  of  the 
main -land. 

His  mind  raced  swiftly  back  to  the 
preceding  evening — to  the  scene  in  the 
fisherman's  hut,  to  his  dash  through 
the  window  in  an  attempt  to  join  his 
fighting-men,  and — there  he  stopped. 
He  had  a  confused  recollection  of  fall- 
ing in  the  dark,  falling  a  long  way,  but 
he  was  not  fully  awake  yet,  and  the 
effort  to  remember  tired  him.  He 
61 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

turned  upon  his  side  —  he  had  been 
lying  on  his  back,  with  his  head 
pillowed  upon  something  soft  and  com- 
fortable —  and,  childlike,  put  up  an 
open  hand  under  his  cheek.  But  when 
his  hand  touched  that  upon  which  his 
head  had  been  resting  he  cried  out  sud- 
denly and  struggled  forthright  to  his 
feet. 

The  woman  who  had  saved  his  life 
half  knelt,  half  sat  behind  him,  and 
upon  her  knees  his  head  had  lain.  At 
this  moment  she  was  leaning  back  a 
little,  with  her  head  and  shoulders 
against  a  small  tree  which  stood  there, 
and  her  eyes  were  closed  as  if  she  were 
asleep. 

Young  Zuan  saw  that  she  was  very 
white,  and  that  her  closed  eyelids  were 
62 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

blue  and  had  blue  circles  under  them. 
The  lids  stirred  after  a  moment  and  she 
opened  her  eyes — blank  and  wonder- 
ing at  first,  a  child's  eyes,  then  swiftly 
intelligent. 

"  Lord!"  she  said,  in  a  whisper,  look- 
ing up  to  him — "lord,  I  must  have — 
slept !  I  did  not  know.  I  am  sorry — 


lord."  She  sat  forward  again  and 
made  as  though  she  would  rise  to  her 
feet,  but  with  the  first  effort  a  spasm  of 
agony  went  over  her  white  face,  and 
she  gave  a  little  scream  and  fell  for- 
ward, prone,  and  so  fainted  quite  away. 
For  a  moment  young  Zuan  did  not 
understand.  Then,  as  comprehension 
came  to  him,  he  dropped  upon  his  knees 
beside  the  woman  with  an  exclamation 
of  pity. 

63 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"The  child  has  come  near  to  killing 
herself  that  I  might  sleep!"  he  cried. 
Then,  before  she  should  wake  to  further 
pain,  he  set  skilfully  to  work.  He 
straightened  the  bent  and  cramped 
knees  and,  with  his  strong  hands,  rub- 
bed and  chafed  the  stiffened  muscles. 
They  were  cold  as  stone,  he  found,  save 
where  his  head  had  lain;  all  feeling 
must  long  since  have  gone  out  of  them. 
Then  at  last,  just  as  he  had  the  blood 
once  more  flowing  redly  under  the  skin, 
the  woman  stirred,  moving  her  hands 
on  the  turf  beside  her,  and  presently 
came  to  her  senses. 

Her  eyes  opened  —  they  were  not 
black,  as  he  had  thought  the  night 
before,  but  curiously  dark  blue,  al- 
most purple — and  she  looked  up  into 
64 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

young  Zuan's  face  as  he  knelt  above 
her. 

"  I  would  not — have  you  think  me, 
lord — a  weakling,"  she  said,  whisper- 
ing. "  It  was  a — moment's  pain.  My 
knees  were  a  little  cramped.  Will  you 
forgive  me,  lord?" 

"Forgive  you?"  said  he.  "You 
have  saved  my  life.  Whether  that  was 
worth  the  saving  or  not  I  do  not  know, 

but  you  have  saved  it,  and  you  have 

._•  •"""-'       ••  '*/•>*.    ";""'; 
borne  great  suffering  that  I  might  sleep 

in  comfort.     Forgive  you?" 

She  lay  quite  still  on  the  turf,  look- 
ing up  at  him,  and  the  old,  paralyzing 
weakness  began  to  creep  upon  Zuan's 
limbs,  the  old,  strange  shaking  came  to 
his  heart. 

"I    would    do   it,    lord,"    said   she, 

fr:i&!^^^ 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"many,  many  times  over  for  your 
sake."  A  warm  flush  spread  up  into 
her  throat  and  over  her  cheeks. 

"I  do  not  understand,"  said  Zuan, 
stammering,  and  dully  he  thought  how 
beautiful  she  was,  lying  there  still 
before  him,  how  young  and  slender  and 
exquisite,  this  woman  of  abomination. 
"  We  are  enemies,"  said  he,  "  the  bitter- 
est of  enemies.  I  came  here  to  cleanse 
Arbe  of  you,  to  set  your  head  on  a  spear 
before  the  count's  castle  for  men  to 
revile  and  spit  upon." 

"Yes,  lord,"  said  the  woman  of 
abomination,  whispering,  and  that 
rosy  flush  died  away  from  cheeks  and 
neck,  leaving  her  pale  again. 

"Last  night,"  said  he,  "you  had  me 
in  your  power.  Your  men  could  have 
66 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

taken  me  alive  or  slain  me  very  easily. 
Yet  you  would  not  let  me  face  them. 
Even  when  I  threatened  to  kill  you 
you  would  not  stand  out  of  my  way." 

"You  had  had  me  in  your  power 
first,  lord,"  said  she.  "But  you  were 
kind  to  me.  You  saved  me  from  great 
shame,  and  covered  me  with  your 
cloak." 

"That  was  nothing,"  said  young 
Zuan.  "  I  did  not  know  that  you  were 
the  princess  Yaga.  But  you  knew 
that  I  was  leader  of  the  force  which  had 
come  to  recover  Arbe  from  you.  Why 
did  you  save  me,  princess?  Why  are 
you  here  with  me  now  in  hiding  ?  Why 
are  you  not  in  the  castle  where  you 

should  be?" 

//  M 
The  flush  came  again,  and  for  the 

67 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


first  time  her  eyes  fell  away  from  his 
with  a  sort  of  timidity. 

"I  could  not — leave  you,  lord,"  she 
said,  whispering  again.  "I  could  not 
see  you  hurt  or  slain  or  a  prisoner.  And 
then  when,  through  accident,  you  lay 
hurt,  after  all,  I  could  not  leave  you 
so." 

"But  why?  Why?"  he  persisted, 
staring  down  upon  her  with  troubled 
eyes.  "  Arbe  was  in  the  hollow  of  your 
hand !  You  are  the  head  of  those  bar- 
barians who  hold  the  city.  Yet  you 
desert  them  to  succor  me.  Why?" 

"If  you  cannot  see,  lord,"  she  said, 
hiding  her  face  with  her  hands,  "  then 
I  cannot  tell  you." 

Young  Zuan  gave  a  sudden  cry. 

"O  God  of  Miracles!"  said  he,  un- 
68 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

der  his  breath.  His  heart  was  racing 
very  madly  and  the  veins  at  his  temples 
throbbed  until  he  thought  that  they 
must  burst. 

He  put  out  faltering  hands  and  took 
the  woman's  hands  from  her  face. 

"What  is  it,"  he  said,  "that— has 
come  to  me  to  rob  me  of  strength  and 
thought  when  I  am  near  you?  What 
is  it  that  came  to  me  last  night  when 
you  first  crept  into  the  fisherman's  hut 

\    .  v. 

and  I  saw  your  eyes?" 

"  Lord,"  she  said,  very  low,  "  I  think 
it  is  love." 

Her  hands  slipped  from  between  his 
lax  palms,  and  young  Zuan  got  to  his 
feet  blindly  and  moved  a  few  paces 
away.  He  put  his  arms  up  against  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  and  laid  his  face  upon 
69 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

them.     Through   the  whirl  of   things 

which  beset  him  he  had  a  dull  con- 
l^g^ 
sciousness  that  his  cherished  world — 

all  his  sane,  ordered  life,  his  duty, 
his  ambitions,  his  pride  of  race — was 
slipping  from  him,  receding  into  a 
misty  background,  leaving  him  face 
to  face  with  something  that  was  im- 
measurably, unthinkably  great — some- 
thing for  which  he  had  been  begotten 
and  born — something  which  drew  him 
towards  itself  with  a  might  that  no 
puny  strength  of  his  could  combat. 

He  turned,  still  blindly,  and  the 
woman  of  abomination,  slim,  girlish, 
virginal,  with  burning  eyes,  stood  be- 
fore him,  her  hands  at  her  breast. 

"Lord,  I  think  it  is — love,"  she  said 
again. 

70 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"And  you,"  said  Zuan — "you  what 
— you  are!"  But  it  was  not  really  he 
who  said  that.  It  was  a  last  faint  pro- 
test from  the  man  he  once  had  been. 

"  Does  that  matter?"  she  pleaded,  in 
an  agony,  her  hands  going  out  to  him. 

Young  Zuan  took  a  great  breath. 
"God  knows  it  should  matter!"  he 
groaned,  "  but  I  cannot  make  it  weigh 
with  me.  Your  spell  is  over  my  heart 
and  soul,  and  I  am  sick  for  helpless  love 
of  you.  When  you  touch  me  I  trem- 
ble. When  I  see  your  eyes  the  world 
drops  from  me  and  I  ride  upon  the  stars 
breathless  in  some  strange  ecstasy.  I 
have  drunk  madness  before  you  and  I 
am  mad.  No!  It  does  not  matter  to 
me  that  you  are  what  you  are — the 
woman  of  abomination.  I  love  you. 

'^SSss-sfBSF^' '  ~  —~-     ' 

71 


1 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

You   and   I  are  bound  together  with 
chains.     We  cannot  live  apart." 

Then  for  a  time  an  odd  little  awk- 
ward silence  fell  upon  them.  Once 
Zuan  put  out  his  arms  towards  the 
woman  as  if  he  would  take  her  into 
them,  but  as  if  moved  by  a  sudden 
panic  at  what  she  had  roused  she 
shrank  back,  crying  something  under 
her  breath  that  sounded  like,  "No, 
no!"  And  presently  he  moved  past 
her  a  few  steps  down  the  slope  of  turf 
on  which  they  stood,  and  straightway 
found  himself  at  the  brink  of  the  west- 
ward cliff  which  rose  from  the  water's 
edge.  He  knew  where  they  were— 
some  three  or  four  miles  north  of 
the  city  and  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  narrow  island  to  where  the 
72 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

fight  of  the  night  before  had  taken 
place. 

"Will  you  tell  me,"  he  said  at  last, 
turning — it  was  a  certain  relief  to 
break  the  strain  they  had  been  under 
— "  will  you  tell  me  how  we  came  here  ? 
We  are  a  long  way  from  the  fisherman's 
hut  and  the  cove  where  my  galley  lay." 

"A  lad  helped  me  with  you,  lord," 
she  said — "a  vine-grower's  lad  whom 
I  befriended  two  days  ago.  When  you 
had  fallen  into  the  little  ravine  I  found 
you  there  at  its  bottom,  and  at  first  I 
— thought  you  were  dead.  You  lay 
so  still!  Then  I  felt  your  heart  beat 
and  knew  you  were  only  stunned.  I 
tore  a  strip  from  my  shift  and  bound 
your  head  with  it,  for  your  head  was 
bleeding. ' '  Young  Zuan  raised  a  hand 

73 
*\. 

SWV.J-'        ^^Itew-     v'vW?!  -'''    , 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

and  for  the  first  time  discovered  that  a 
bandage  was  wrapped  about  his  brows. 
"Then  I  waited  there  with  you.  I 
waited  for  a  long  time,  climbing  the 
bank  once  or  twice  to  see  how  the  fight 
above  was  waging.  Not  many  of  your 
men  were  killed,  I  think — ten  or  twelve 
perhaps — those  who  fought  as  rear- 
guard while  the  others  were  swimming 
and  rowing  in  skiffs  out  to  the  ship — " 
"Then  they  got  way?"  cried  young 
Zuan,  eagerly.  "The  galley  got  safe 
away?" 

|»res,  lord,"  she  said,  "the  galley 
sailed  away,  and  after  a  time  the  Huns 
— my  Huns — went  away  too  towards 
the  city.  When  I  came  out  of  the 
ravine  at  last  there  was  only  one  man 
left  there — the  vine-grower's  lad,  who 
74 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

had  crept  from  the  wood  to  see  the 
fighting.  I  called  to  him,  and  between 
us  we  raised  you  and  brought  you  here. 
You  fell  asleep  without  waking  from 
your  swoon." 

"They  got  away!"  said  young  Zuan, 
staring  with  wide,  bright  eyes  across 
the  strait  to  where  the  Velebic  cliffs 
rose  gray  and  fierce .  ' '  They  got  away ! 
They'll  meet  II  Lupo  and  the  other 
galleys!  They—"  A  little  restless 
movement  from  the  woman  made  him 
turn  his  head  quickly,  and  the  light 
faded  from  his  eyes. 

"That — doesn't  matter,"  he  said,  in 
a  different  tone.  "  Nothing  matters — 
now. ' '  He  watched  her  for  a  long  time 
under  his  brows,  bitterly  at  first,  but 
she  was  such  as  no  man  could  look 
6  75 


>f 

The    Island    oi    Enchantment 

s  is*  ' 

coldly  upon,  and  she  had  saved  his  life 
and  gone  from  triumph  into  hiding 
with  him.  As  he  looked  at  her,  II 
Lupo  and  the  galleys  dimmed  from  his 
mind. 

"  What,"  said  he  at  last,  very  gently, 
"is  to  become  of  you  and  me?" 

"I  do  not  know,  lord,"  she  said. 
"Oh,  lord,  a  woman,  when  she  loves, 
does  not  think  of  such  things  or  care 
for  them.  She  does  not  look  ahead. 
A  woman,  lord,  when  she  loves,  has 
space  in  her  mind  and  soul  for  nothing 
but  love.  You — do  not  know  women." 

"No,"  said  young  Zuan,  shaking  his 
head,  "  I  do  not  know  them.  That  is 
true.  They — have  never  come  into 

my  way." 

MffMff  :.'tf$?!|?iHK ' 

"  I  am  glad,"  she  said. 


I 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"Princess,"  said  he,  after  a  little 
silence,  "it  is  true,  what  men  say  of 
you?" 

"Does  it  matter?"  she  asked  again. 
"No,  lord,  it  is  not  true — at  least  much 
of  it  is  not.  But  you  have  said  it  did 
not  matter — you  have  said  so!" 

He  turned  his  eyes  from  the  pitiful- 
ness  of  her  face. 

"  It  matters,"  he  said,  "  only  in  what 
is  to  become  of  us.  If  it  is  true,  we  can 
never  go  back  to  Venice.  I  must  be  an 
outcast  from  my  city  and  from  my 
people." 

She  crept  nearer  to  him,  where  they 
sat  on  the  cliff's  edge,  nearer,  on  her 
knees,  looking  eagerly  into  his  face. 

"And,  lord,"  she  said,  watching 
him,  "if  it  is  true — sufficiently  true — 
77 


. 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

would  you  suffer  that  for  my  sake? 
Would  you  give  up  all  that  to  go  with 
me?" 

"How  could  I  do  otherwise?"  said 

;^l  ;,. 

young  Zuan,  simply,  and  at  that  the 
woman  broke  into  a  little  sobbing 
laugh  of  joy  and  triumph  and  tender-, 
ness. 

"Oh,  lord!"  she  cried,   "that  were 

. 
love  indeed!     Oh,  lord,  I  did  not  know 

that  there  were  men  so  faithful  and  so 
good. 

"And  yet,"  she  said,  presently,  as  if 
in  argument  with  herself — "  yet  noble 
lords  of  Venice  and  of  Genoa  and  of 
Naples  and  of  many  Italian  cities  have 
married  queens  and  princesses  no 
better  than  the  Princess  Yaga." 

"It  is  not  that  only,"  said  young 
78 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

Zuan.  "There  are  many  evil  women 
in  high  places — fawned  before,  bowed 
down  to — in  Italy;  but  you  have  done 
one  very  terrible  and  shameful  thing, 
princess,  which  alone  must  make  you 
hated  in  Venice  forever,  and  must 
make  marriage  between  you  and  me 
impossible  there." 

"I — do  not  understand/'  she  said, 
wondering. 

"You  or  your  brigands,"  he  said, 
"  carried  off  from  Ragusa  Natalia  Volu- 
tich.  I  was  to  have  married  her." 

The  woman  screamed,  dragging  her- 
self backward  over  the  turf  away  from 
him. 

"  You— -you"  she  cried,  in  a  breath- 
less whisper,  her  hands  at  her  mouth, 
— "you  are — Zuan— Gradenigo?" 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"Why— yes!"  said  he.  "I  thought 
you  knew." 

She  stumbled  to  her  feet,  staring  and 
sobbing. 

"Oh,  what  have  I  done?  What 
have  I  done?"  she  cried,  over  and  over 
again,  and  she  moved  still  farther  away, 
staring  at  him  as  if  he  were  a  ghost 
risen  against  her. 

"  What  have  I  done  ?"  she  whispered. 
Then  all  at  once  she  began  a  sobbing, 
hysterical  laugh — a  laugh  that  shook 
all  her  slim  body,  like  weeping,  and  it 
seemed  that  she  would  never  have  done 
with  it.  She  covered  her  face  with  her 
hands,  leaning  against  a  tree  which 
grew  near  by,  and  the  fit  of  endless 
laughter  swept  her  like  a  storm.  Young 
Zuan  watched  her  under  his  brows  with 
80 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

a  sort  of  gloomy  resentment.  Women, 
he  had  been  told  by  those  of  experience, 
were  creatures  of  strange  and  incom- 
prehensible moods,  ruled,  like  a  horse, 
by  divers  vagaries  and  not  at  all  by 
reason.  This  mad  fit  of  hysteria  was, 
he  took  it,  therefore  to  be  endured  as 
patiently  as  might  be,  but  he  had  small 
store  of  patience. 

"Oh,  lord,"  said  the  woman,  pres- 
ently, gasping  between  her  fits  of 
laughter,  tears  in  her  eyes — "lord, 
there  is  a  thing  which  I  must  tell  you 
— an  amazing  thing.  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  will  be  glad  or  angry  of  it. 
In  any  case  I  must  tell  you  at  once — " 

"Wait!"  said  Zuan,  and  held  up  a 
hand.     "I  must  know  first  about  this 
maid,    Natalia    Volutich,    whom    you 
81 

-<;.:-;-'>,.'   ; 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

stole  away.  What  have  you  done  with 
her,  princess?"  His  tone  was  very 
grave  and  stern. 

"The  maid  Natalia,"  said  she,  "has 
been  well  treated,  lord.  She  has  come 
to  no  harm.  If  this  war  had  not  arisen 
she  would  have  been  sent  back  safely 
to  her  father  before  now." 

"  Unharmed  ?"  said  Zuan  Gradenigo, 
watching  the  woman's  eyes. 

"Unharmed,  lord,"  she  said.  "A 
maid,  as  she  came.  Indeed" — there 
seemed  to  be  a  glimmer  of  a  smile  at 
the  woman's  lips — "indeed,  I  think 
she  has  not  been  unhappy,  this  Natalia 
of  Ragusa.  I  think  she  has  learned  to 
feel  a  certain  fondness  for  her  mistress. 
I  think  she  would  serve  her  in  any  way 
she  could."  The  smile  was  a  wry 
82 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

smile  now.  "  Even  so  vile  a  thing  as  I, 
lord,"  said  the  woman  of  abomination, 
"can  be  tender  and — faithful.  Even 
so  vile  a  thing  as  I  is  sometimes  loved. 
An  evil  woman,  Messer  Zuan,  is  not  all 
evil.  There  is  something  of  good  in  the 
very  lowest." 

1 '  Princess !    Princess ! ' '  cried  the  man . 

"And  now,"  she  said,  "I  must  tell 
you  what  must  be  told;  but,  lord,  be- 
fore I  tell  it  will  you  say  to  me  once 
more  what  you  have  said — that  for  my 
sake,  to  be  with  me  alone,  you  stand 
willing — nay,  glad — to  give  up  your 
city  and  your  rank  and  your  friends? 
Will  you  say  to  me  that  I,  woman  of  in- 
famy though  men  call  me,  am  dearer 
to  you  than  everything  else  in  the 
world?"  She  came  close  to  him,  put- 
83 


: 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

m     /  x  s'  i 

ting  out  her  two  hands  upon  his  breast, 

and  her  great  eyes  burned  up  into  his, 
and  her  face  seemed  for  the  instant  to 
sharpen,  to  pale,  and  her  lips  trembled. 

"Will  you  tell  me  once  again?"  she 
said,  pleading. 

"I  could  not — live  without  you — 
^^^^^^^^  child,"  he  said,  and  she  cried  out  with 
joy  at  the  name.  He  had  called  her 
"child"  on  the  night  before  when  he 
did  not  know  who  she  was. 

She  stood  away  from  him  at  arm's- 
length. 

"  Now  then,  at  last,"  she  said,  "  I  will 
tell  you  what  you  must  know.  Lord, 
I — "  Her  voice  failed  suddenly  as  if 
she  had  been  stricken  ill,  and  all  the 
rosy  color  which  had  risen  to  her 
cheeks  began  to  die  slowly  away.  She 

84 
iLJt'.       J^L 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

seemed  to  be  staring  over  young 
Zuan's  shoulder  towards  the  north. 
She  raised  her  hand  a  little  way,  but 
it  dropped  again  weakly  by  her  side. 
"The — ships!"  she  said,  in  a  strained 
whisper.  ' '  The — ships ! ' '  Zuan  turned 
to  look. 

Round  a  little  wooded  point  of  the 
island,  scarcely  more  than  a  mile  to  the 
north  of  where  they  stood,  came,  before 
the  wind,  three  great  Venetian  galleys, 
looming  high  and  stately  in  that  narrow 
strait. 

Zuan  gave  a  great  shout.  "My 
ships!"  he  cried.  "My  galleys!"  His 
voice  ran  up  into  an  odd  falsetto  note 
which  was  almost  a  scream.  "Trapani 
has  found  II  Lupo,  and  they  are  going 
to  attack  the  city  by  sea !"  He  sprang 
85 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

for  his  cloak,  which  lay  near,  as  if  he 
would  wave  it  to  attract  the  attention 
of  those  on  the  galleys,  but  the  woman 
caught  him  by  the  arm,  white-faced 
and  breathless. 

"No,  no!"  she  cried,  swiftly.  "No! 
You — must  not  go.  They  must  not 
attack — now.  The  city  could  be  taken 
in  an  hour.  Those  men — fools!  fools! 
— of  ours  have  destroyed  the — engines 
of  defence.  They  did  not  know  how  to 
use  them.  And  they  have — sunk  the 
ships  in  the  harbor.  Lord,  you  must 
not  let  your  ships  attack.  We  must 
not  lose  the  city.  Oh,  it  would  be 
cruel,  cruel!"  She  clung  to  his  arms, 
sobbing,  panic-stricken,  stumbling  des- 
perately over  her  words. 

"Lord,  they  must  not  take  Arbe!" 
86 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

she  wailed.  "All  we  have  done — all  / 
have  done  —  gone  for  nothing  —  noth- 
ing! It  is  not  to  be  borne.  Stop 
them,  lord !  You  would  not  be  so  cruel 
as  to  allow  this.  You  do  not  know— 
Oh,  stop  them!  Stop  them!"  She 
was  quite  beside  herself  with  terror,  but 
Zuan  put  her  out  away  from  him  at 
arm's-length  and  held  her  there. 

"Listen!"  he  said,  sharply.  "Listen 
to  me!" 

And  her  wild  incoherence  checked  it- 
self— dropped  into  breathless  sobbing. 

"I  cannot  stop  those  galleys,"  he 
said.  "They  have  come  here  to  re- 
take Arbe,  which  you  seized  from  us, 
and  if  what  you  say  is  true  they  will 
take  it  easily.  Remember,  nothing  I 
can  do  will  save  the  city  for  you.  The 
87 


"  ¥ 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

city  is  lost  to  you  already.  You  must 
let  me  signal  to  the  galleys  and  go  on 
board.  You  must  let  me  lead  this 
force  in  the  attack,  as  I  was  to  have 
done  when  I  left  Venice." 

The  woman  cried  out  upon  him  again 
in  a  panic,  but  he  quieted  her  sharply  as 
before,  speaking  in  quick,  emphatic 
words  as  one  speaks  to  a  terrified 
child. 

"You  must  let  me  go!"  he  said. 
"  Surely  you  see  that  my  honor  is  in 
this.  Whether  I  go  or  stay  here  in 
hiding,  the  result  will  be  the  same  for 
the  city,  but  if  I  do  not  go  I  am  dis- 
honored for  life.  You  would  be  hurt 
by  that  as  much  as  I,  so  let  me  go.  If 
I  retake  the  city,  the  council  in  Venice 
will  perhaps  allow  me  to  marry  you 
88 


. 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

without  banishment.  At  any  rate, 
there  is  the  bare  chance  of  it.  Let  me 
go!" 

She  stood  away  from  him,  drooping, 
downcast  eyes  averted,  and  she  made 
an  odd  little  despairing  gesture — as  it 
were  of  defeat.  Arbe  went  from  her 
hands  in  that  gesture.  Triumph  was 
renounced  that  her  lover's  honor  might 
rest  unstained. 

"  Yes,"  she  said — "  yes,  you  must  go, 
lord.  I  will  not  dishonor  you.  But 
oh,  if  there  is  a  God  who  hears  lovers' 
prayers,  I  pray  that  he  will  not  let  you 
come  to  harm.  If  you  are  killed  this 
day  I  shall  not  live." 

The  ships  were  drawing  nearer,  down 
the  coast  of  the  island. 

"I  shall  be,"  said  the  woman  of 
89 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

abomination,  "in  the  city,  lord,  when 
you  take  it."  She  smiled  again  her 
wry  smile,  as  if  something  grimly 
amused  her. 

"No!"  said  he.  "Wait  here  or  in 
the  wood  north  of  the  Land  Gate.  I 
will  come  for  you.  You  must  not  put 
yourself  in  danger." 

"  I  shall  be  in  the  city,  lord,"  she  said 
again,  "  but  not  in  danger.  Oh,  I  pray 
God  to  keep  you  safe!" 

"I  must  go,"  said  he,  looking  over 
his  shoulder  at  the  three  high  galleys. 
"I  must  go,  but  oh,  my  dear,  never 
doubt  me!  I  shall  come  to  you  if  I 
have  to  crawl  on  hands  and  knees!" 
He  took  her  into  his  arms  and  kissed 
her  mouth.  It  was  the  first  time. 
Then  he  caught  up  his  mantle  and 
90 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

stood,  sharply  outlined  on  the  brink  of 
the  cliff,  waving  it  about  his  head,  until 
through  the  still  morning  air  he  heard 
cries  from  the  men  of  the  nearest  ship 
and  saw  that  he  had  attracted  their 
attention. 

Near  where  he  stood  a  fissure  rent 
the  wall  of  rock  —  a  watercourse  half 
filled  with  earth  and  shale  and  grown 
up  with  low  shrubs.  Down  this  he 
made  his  way,  plunging  recklessly 
among  bowlders,  and  so  reached  the 
tiny  strip  of  beach  at  the  cliff's  foot. 
The  first  galley  was  already  hove  to, 
and  from  it  a  skiff  put  out  to  take  him 
aboard.  In  ten  minutes  more  the 
three  ships  bore  away  again  south- 
ward, and  Zuan  Gradenigo  was  in 
command. 

7  91 


/  - 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

And,  after  all,  they  had  very  little 
fighting  for  their  pains — too  little  to 
please  them.  For  it  seems  that  an 
hour  before  the  three  ships  came  into 

sight  of  the  city  the  Venetians  and 

Arbesani  of  the  garrison,  too  carelessly 
guarded  by  their  barbarian  captors, 
rose,  in  street  and  market-place  and 
improvised  prison — rose  at  a  precon- 
certed signal — and  fell  upon  the  Huns 
tooth  and  nail.  Some  of  them  had 
weapons,  some  sticks  or  stones,  one 
— an  Arbesan  called  Spalatini,  and 
his  name  deserves  to  go  down  in  his- 
tory along  with  Messer  Samson's — the 

'  $ 
thigh-bone  of  an  ox  which  the  Huns 

had  killed  and  roasted  whole  in  the 
Via  Venezia. 

When,  therefore,  the  three  galleys 
92 

tiJ 


X 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

under  Zuan  Gradenigo  drew  into  the 
harbor  and  hurriedly  made  fast  to  the 
landing-place,  a  running  hand-to-hand 
fight  was  in  progress  from  one  end  of 
the  city  to  the  other.  It  was  not  a 
battle,  for  it  had  no  organization  what- 
ever. It  was  a  disgraceful  melee. 
Naturally  enough  the  Venetian  rein- 
forcements incontinently  decided  the 
day.  Something  over  three  hundred 
of  the  ban's  barbarians — Huns,  Slavs, 
and  Croats  --  gave  themselves  up. 
Nearly  two  hundred  killed  themselves 
by  leaping  over  the  high  westward  sea- 
wall, and  a  hundred  more  were  killed 
in  fight  or  escaped  by  water.  It 
was  an  inglorious  ending  to  a  mat- 
ter which  had  promised  so  fine  a 
struggle. 

93 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

An  hour  after  the  landing,  as  soon  as 
ever  his  duties  gave  him  a  moment's 
breathing  space,  young  Zuan  made  up 
the  Via  Venezia  —  that  single  long 
street  which  runs  north  and  south 
through  the  city — to  the  castle  which 
sits  at  the  street's  northern  end,  and 
under  which  is  the  Land  Gate,  the  only 
means  of  entering  the  town  except  by 
sea. 

In  the  loggia  of  the  castle  he  came 
upon  the  count  —  Jacopo  Corner  —  a 
round  old  man  with  a  red  face,  gouty, 
so  that  he  went  upon  crutches.  At 
this  moment  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
group  of  gentlemen — Arbesani  for  the 
most  part,  heads  of  the  city's  great 
families — De  Dominis,  Galzigna,  Ne- 
mira,  Zudeneghi,  and  such;  but  he 
94 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

turned  from  them  to  greet  young 
Gradenigo. 

"Ah,  Zuan,  my  lad!"  he  cried  out, 
"you  come  in  the  nick  of  time — you 
and  your  archers!  You've  saved  the 
day,  for  those  dogs  were  just  getting 
the  better  of  us.  Another  hour  and — 
St.  Mark! — our  heads  would  have  been 
on  pike-staves!" 

Young  Zuan  struggled  to  preserve  a 
face  of  civil  sympathy,  but  his  eyes 
were  upon  the  open  doors  beyond. 
Old  Jacopo  seemed  to  read  his  thought. 

"  Ay,  we  have  the  queen  bee  in  there ! 
She's  in  my  private  audience-chamber, 
bound  to  a  chair.  Queen  bee,  say  I? 
Hussy !  Strumpet !  Daughter  of  abom- 
ination! Mother  of  sins!"  He  shook 
a  crutch  at  the  bronze  doors.  "Ay, 
95 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

she's  there ! "  he  said.  "  But  the  wench 
has  cheated  us,  for  all  that.  She  has 
robbed  me  of  the  pleasure  of  tear- 
ing her  evil  bones  apart — alive,  that 
is." 

Gradenigo,  one  hand  on  the  door, 
turned  slowly  backward  a  masklike 
face.  He  felt  that  he  was  shaking  and 
swaying  like  a  drunken  man. 

"What  do  you — mean?"  he  said,  in 

• 
a  flat  voice. 

Old  Jacopo  hobbled  nearer  and 
touched  the  younger  man's  arm.  "  Eh, 
lad!"  he  croaked.  "Come!  come! 
You're  not  yourself.  The  sun  has  got 
to  you.  You've  a  bound-up  head,  I 
see.  Better  have  a  rest!" 

"What   was   it   you    said?"    asked 

J 

young  Gradenigo,  looking  down  at  the 
06 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

ground,  which  swung  slowly  back  and 
forth  under  him. 

"Yaga?"  said  old  Jacopo.  "Oh, 
she's  dead.  The  wanton's  dead.  She 
got  a  serving-maid  to  stab  her  while 
she  sat  bound  in  her — " 

"  Out  of  my  way!"  said  young  Zuan, 
in  a  great  voice  of  agony,  and  he 
dashed  the  old  man  aside  and  sprang 
through  the  half-open  doors  of  the 
castle. 

He  knew  where  the  private  audience- 
room  was,  and  ran  there  at  speed.  No 
soldier  stood  on  guard  at  the  door — all 
had  been  engaged  in  that  hand-to- 
hand  street-fight  through  the  city.  He 
tore  the  door  open  and  reeled  into  the 
room,  then  closed  it  behind  him  and 
stood  with  his  back  against  it. 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

The  room  was  oddly  like  that  room 
in  the  doge's  palace  where  he  had  sat 
with  his  uncle  two  days  since  in  Venice. 
The  same  great,  carved  table  stood  near 
the  centre.  The  same  high-set  win- 
dows let  in  bars  of  colored  light,  which 
slanted  down  through  the  dimness  and 
lay  across  floor  and  furniture  in  billets 
and  lozenges  of  gules  and  vert  and 
azure. 

A  single  red  beam  rested  upon  the 
bared  shoulder  of  the  woman  who  hung 
drooping  from  her  bonds,  in  the  count's 
great  chair  of  state;  but  lower,  from 
between  the  woman's  breasts,  a  darker 
red  had  coursed  a  downward  trickling 
stream,  and,  still  lower,  made  a  red 
pool  in  the  woman's  lap.  Her  head, 


bent,    with    chin    on   breast,    was   in 


SHE    HUNG    DROOPING    IN    THE    GREAT    CHAIR    OF    STATE 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

shadow,  but  out  of  the  shadow  two 
eyes,  still  half  open,  gleamed  with  the 
shallow,  dull  opacity  of  death. 

Young  Zuan,  shaking  against  his 
closed  door,  gave  a  dry  sob. 

"  Child !  Child !"  he  mourned,  bitter- 
ly. Then,  all  at  once,  his  eyes  nar- 
rowed in  an  alert  frown.  There  was 
something  strange  here. 

He  crossed  the  room  with  swift  steps 
and  dropped  upon  one  knee  before  the 
chair  of  state,  staring  close  through  the 
half -darkness. 

This  was  a  woman,  beautiful  in- 
dubitably, but  no  longer  young.  Her 
bared  shoulders  were  thick  and  mature, 
the  breast  under  them  mature,  too.  On 
her  bent  face  lust  and  hatred  and 
cupidity  and  all  evil  passions  had 
99 


i- 

The    Island    of    Enchantment 

graven   marks   that   not   even  death 


could  erase. 

Ay!  something  strange  here.  Young 
Zuan's  foot  struck  against  a  yield- 
ing body  which  lay  under  the  heavy 
shadow  of  the  table.  It  was  another 
woman,  and  dead  also,  lying  upon  her 
face.  Gradenigo  turned  the  body  over 
with  panic  in  his  heart.  A  squat, 
broad-jowled,  peasant  face — the  serv- 
ing-maid, it  would  seem,  who  had  done 
her  mistress  that  last  service  and 
straight  way  folio  wed  to  serve  elsewhere. 

Zuan  rose  to  his  feet  frowning.  The 
matter  was  quite  beyond  him.  Then 
one  stirred  in  the  shadows  at  the  far 
end  of  the  room,  and  very  slowly  his 
princess  came  to  him  through  those 
bars  of  colored  light. 

100 


.v^,-^'--~      ., ;  -     .;-. . 
^jfV^xa^ 

;   , 
The    Island    of    Enchantment 

"Child!   Child!"  he  cried  again,  and  \ 
tears  rolled  down  over  his  cheeks.    He 
put  out  shaking  arms  to  her,  but  she 
held  him  away  with  one  hand,  saying 
only : 

"Wait,  lord!" 

Young  Zuan  swung  about  towards 
the  dead  woman  who  drooped  so 
heavily  in  her  bonds. 

"  Who  is— that  who  sits  there  dead  ?" 
he  asked.  "  Corner  told  me  it  was  the 
Princess  Yaga.  Some  one  has  lied  to 
him.  Who  is  it?" 

She  gave  a  quick  sob. 

"Lord,  it  is  the  Princess  Yaga,"  she 
said. 

"  But,"  said  he,  dropping  his  voice  to 
a  whisper — he  did  not  know  why — 
"but  you — you?" 

101 


of    Enchantment 

"" Natalia  Volutich,  lord!"  she  said, 
whispering,  too. 

Young  Zuan  put  up  a  hand  to  his 
bandaged  head,  and  he  drew  the  hand 
across  his  eyes.  His  eyes  were  bewil- 
dered, hurt — like  a  child's  eyes  before 
some  great  mystery. 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  he  said,  just 
as  a  child  would  say  it. 

"Lord,"  cried  the  maid,  with  little 
sobs  between  her  words,  "I — did  it 
first — I  pretended  to  be  Yaga  first,  for 
— duty's  sake — the  duty  I  owed  to  her. 
She  had  been  good  to  me,  lord,  kind  and 
loving.  When  your  lieutenant  thought 
I  was  Yaga  and  begged  you  to  set  sail 
with  me,  leaving  Arbe,  I  saw  that  it 
would  give  her  time — time  to  strength- 
en the — defences.  So  I  lied.  I  did 

102 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

not — care  what  became  of  me  if  only 
she  was — safe.  Then — then  you  were 
in — danger  and — oh,  lord,  I  had  looked 
into  your  eyes!  I  had—  There  was 
never  man  like  you.  I — loved  you 
from  the  first  moment — the  very  first 
moment.  I  could  not  bear  that  you 
should  die.  So  I — saved  you.  Lord, 
do  you  not  understand?  What  I  did 
I  did  for  love's  sake.  This  morning 
when  I  found  who  you  were  I  tried  to 
tell  you  the  truth.  I  tried,  lord,  did  I 
not?  Did  I  not?  Oh!"  she  cried,  turn- 
ing from  him  with  wringing  hands,  "  I 
have  done  everything  ill  and  you  will 
never  forgive  me ;  and  yet,  lord,  I  did  it 
all  for  love's  sake!" 

She  looked  towards  Zuan  Gradenigo, 
but  he  stood  silent  and  helpless  in  his 
103 


The    Island    of.  Enchantment 

place,  his  eyes  staring,  his  lips  apart. 
The  thing  had  been  too  swift  and  too 
amazing  for  him.  His  mind,  unused  to 
indirections,  labored  blindly  at  sea. 
And  so,  after  a  moment,  she  turned 
away  again  and  crossed  the  room  to 
where  the  dead  woman  hung,  lax  and 
heavy,  in  the  carven  chair.  Sobbing, 
she  dropped  upon  her  knees  before  the 
chair  and  laid  her  forehead  against  the 
dead  woman's  arm,  into  whose  soft 
flesh  the  leathern  thongs  had  cut  so 

cruelly. 

"J 

"  And  I  was  away  when  they  bound 
you!"  she  wept.  "  I  was  not  with  you 
when  you  died!" 

Zuan  Gradenigo  awoke  from  his 
daze. 

"  Child ! ' '  he  cried.  "  Child !  Come 
104 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 


away  from  that  vile  body.  It  pollutes 
you!" 

But  the  maid  turned  fiercely  upon 
him. 

"She  loved  me!"  cried  the  maid. 
"  She  was  kind  to  me,  gentle  and  pitiful 
—and  I  let  her  die  alone!  Whatever 
she  may  have  been  to  others,  to  me, 
lord,  she  was  like  the  mother  who  died 
when  I  was  a  little  babe.  She  loved 
me,  and  I  let  her  die  miserably,  alone 
here!  Oh,  lord,  have  you  nothing  but 
curses  for  a  woman  who  is  dead  and 
cannot  answer  you?" 

Zuan  bent  his  head.  "Child,"  said 
he,  gravely,  "I  ask  your  forgiveness, 
and  hers,  and  God's.  She  was  kind  to 
you,  wherefore  I  shall  never  speak  ill  of 
her  again.  But  oh,  my  dear,  come  to 


The    Island    of    Enchantment 

me !  She  is  dead  and  you  cannot  com- 
fort her  now.  Come  to  me,  child,  who 
am  alive  and  cannot  live  without  you." 
"Oh,  lord,"  said  she,  "I  would  not 
have  you  try!" 


THE     END 


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